Organic optoelectronic devices such as organic thin film transistors (OTFTS), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), printable circuits, organic photovoltaic devices, capacitors and sensors are fabricated using small molecule or polymeric semiconductors as their active components. To achieve high speed performance and efficient operation, it is desirable that both the p-type and n-type semiconductor materials in these organic semiconductor-based devices exhibit high charge carrier mobility (μ) and stability under ambient conditions, and can be processed in a cost-effective manner.
Over the past two decades, there have been many reports on new classes of electron-depleted π-conjugated organic molecules and polymers with good semiconducting characteristics in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Among these, perylenediimide (PDI) derivatives have demonstrated one of the greatest potentials as n-channel semiconductors. Although there are many examples of PDI-based small molecules as high performance semiconductors for OFETs, only a few PDI polymers have been reported with charge carrier mobilities in the range of 0.001-0.02 cm2/V·s. Additionally, these mobility values are still one to two orders of magnitude below those obtained with small molecule PDIs and naphthalenediimide-based polymers, which probably reflect the interplay of electronic and structural features of the PDI-based polymeric backbones as a result of regioirregularity and sterically demanding monomeric unit linkage in the bay positions.
Accordingly, the art desires new small molecule and polymeric semiconductors, particularly those having good stability, processing properties, and/or charge transport characteristics in ambient conditions.